Outreach Efforts

I spent three weeks in this culturally rich and diverse, high-energy, beautiful country. My program began in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, in North Borneo, where I conducted a two-and-a-half-day workshop from July 30 to Aug. 1 on conflict resolution for senior Sabah state government officials; the workshop was organized by the Human Resource Development Department. What struck me most about Sabah—other than the generosity of my hosts—was that the state secretary for Sabah, Dato K.Y. Mustafa, used my visit as an opportunity to communicate to his assembled colleagues the importance of identifying and implementing nonconfrontational approaches to problem solving in all sectors of state government. Nonconfrontational approaches are particularly important since, if state civil servants do their jobs properly, they will invariably overstep into others’ territories. Hence, given that conflicts are inevitable, they should be viewed as opportunities to be seized instead of problems to be avoided. During my workshop, which met at the beautiful Sabah State Assembly Building, I presented information on conflicts likely to emerge within and between departments and organizations of state governments and conflicts likely to emerge between local, state, and federal levels of government. I discussed the causes and conditions of conflict, especially those conditions that can cause conflict to become violent. I also discussed ways to head off such conflicts or, failing that, techniques for dealing with them once violence takes hold.

On the last day, I asked the participants to form themselves into working groups to deal with conflicts they typically face at each level of government, using concepts and approaches presented during the workshop—an exercise that they found exceptionally useful. Before departing Sabah, I presented a lecture titled “Conflict Analysis and Management for Southeast Asia: Territorial Disputes” at the School of Social Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, in Kota Kinabalu on Aug. 1. In addition to having 32 ethnic groups and some 40 linguistic systems, Sabah shares Borneo with the Sultanate of Brunei and Indonesia as well as the fellow Malaysian state of Sarawak. Because of the country’s great diversity and the many territorial issues it faces, Sabah was an appropriate place to discuss conflict management, especially given the receptiveness of Dato K.Y. Mustafa, the state secretary for Sabah.

My next stop was in Kuching, the delightful capital city in neighboring Sarawak, where I presented a lecture titled “Conflict Analysis and Management: Case Study of the Balkan States” for the International Affairs Program of the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak in Kota Samarahan. I then conducted a one-day workshop on conflict resolution for senior Sarawak state government and private sector officials, which was organized by the Sarawak Development Institute and the Centre for Modern Management. This workshop was a modified version of the two-and-a-half-day workshop I conducted in Sabah. As in Sabah, participants seemed to find it useful, especially the opportunity to apply theory to actual conflicts they encounter. One participant commented that the workshop should have been conducted over a longer period than one day.

My next stop was in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, where I conducted a four-day workshop titled “Negotiation and Conflict Resolution” for Malaysian government and private sector representatives at the National Institute of Public Administration. For the entire last day of this workshop, the practical component consisted of a series of role-plays dealing with three themes: an interpersonal conflict between a wife and husband whose marriage was in a state of crisis; an interpersonal/intradepartmental conflict between three female subordinates and their male supervisor over promotion issues; and finally, the Middle East conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. In each case, course participants played the various disputant roles, and some joined me as the third party. According to provisional feedback, participants found the role-plays particularly useful, especially following the presentation of appropriate concepts, theories, and approaches for dealing with conflict. While in Kuala Lumpur, I also presented a lecture titled “New Trends in Managing International Conflicts” for government officials, diplomats, and scholars at the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations. Later that day, I presented a lecture on conflict analysis and management for faculty members and students of the Department of International Strategic Studies at the University of Malaya.

My next and final stop on this program was Penang, where I conducted a one-day workshop titled “War, Violence, and Conflict Resolution in the Post-Cold War World” and a half-day seminar titled “Intervention into Complex Humanitarian Emergencies” for faculty members and students at the Research and Education for Peace unit of the Universiti Sains Malaysia. (Also in attendance were faculty members and students from the School of Social Development, Universiti Utara Malaysia, in Sintok, Kedah.) Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang is the only university in the country with an explicit program in peace and conflict studies.

I was particularly gratified to learn that the coordinator for the university’s Research and Education for Peace unit, Kamarulzamam (Zam) Askandar, had recently established, with assistance from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the Southeast Asian Conflict Studies Network. This network comprises university programs from nine countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The Research and Education for Peace unit of the Universiti Sains Malaysia is the secretariat and Zam is the regional coordinator for the network, the objectives of which are to promote cooperation and collaboration among researchers working in the area of peace and conflict research in Southeast Asia, to promote research in peace and conflict resolution in Southeast Asia in accordance with the themes of the network, to produce a body of literature on conflict analysis and resolution, and to undertake a Southeast Asian Conflict Mapping Project. The Southeast Asian Conflict Studies Network represents an effort to establish programs and mechanisms for collaborative problem solving and peaceful conflict resolution in the ASEAN region.

These programs and mechanisms are expected to complement existing intergovernmental processes in order to enhance the traditionally collaborative “ASEAN way” to conflict management. Indeed, the network is sufficiently unique as an unofficial approach to regional conflict management that it could serve as a model for university programs and nongovernmental organizations in other regions similarly concerned with joint research and collaborative programs. As the ICAR internship coordinator, I have offered to find Zam an intern—either an M.S. or a Ph.D. student in conflict analysis and resolution—to help him implement further the network’s concept. (I had provided Zam with an intern a few years ago, M.S. student Lewis Dabney, and this arrangement worked out quite well.)

This program was, from my point of view, a resounding success because of the tireless efforts of Chew Wing Foong, cultural affairs specialist, who, with the support of Margot Carrington, cultural affairs officer for the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, negotiated and coordinated with several people to design and implement this culturally, intellectually, socially, and spiritually satisfying experience. The individuals listed below are among the many people who contributed to the success of the program:

SA’ADILAH HAJI ABDILLAH, deputy director, Department of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Resources and Information Technology, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

ASMADY IDRIS, coordinator for the International Affairs Program, School of Social Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

ZABARIAH MATALI, program coordinator, Sarawak Development Institute, Kuching, Sarawak

DANIEL CHEW, senior research fellow, Sarawak Development Institute, Kuching, Sarawak, Charles
Tenggoi Aseng, manager, Centre for Modern Management, Kuching, Sarawak

AHMAD NIZAR YAAKOB, coordinator, International Affairs Program, Faculty of Social Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak

SARASWATHY RAJAGOPAL, senior consultant, Advanced Leadership and Executive Development Centre, National Institute of Public Administration, Kuala Lumpur

ABDUL HALIM SAAD, head of strategic and international security studies, Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations, Prime Minister’s Department, Kuala Lumpur

DAVID ONG CHAN HOR, director of training, Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations, Prime Minister’s Department, Kuala Lumpur

JATSWAN SINGH SIDHU, department head, Department of International and Strategic Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur

PHILLIP H.J. DAVIES, associate professor, Department of International and Strategic Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur

KAMARULZAMAM (ZAM) ASKANDAR, coordinator, Research and Education for Peace unit, School of Social Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang

In conclusion, I recommend that the U.S. government continue to pay attention to Malaysia and to developments there and in the ASEAN region in general and to provide specialists from various fields who can assist their counterparts in this most impressive country and elsewhere in the region. I encourage the United States to work to facilitate further the “Malaysian way” domestically and the “ASEAN way” regionally.